


Bete Noire

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1125]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Case Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 15:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15754488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Nobody understands Tony's obsession with Gibbs' bete noire, but when they get a case involving a dead Naval officer at the pentagon just how does Gibbs' bete noire factor in?





	Bete Noire

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 05/30/2002 for the word [bete noire](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/05/30/bete%20noire).
> 
> bete noire  
> Something or someone particularly detested or avoided; a bugbear.
> 
> This is for prompt #5 of the May 2018 Five Prompts Challenge located [here](https://ncis-discuss.livejournal.com/141699.html).
> 
> I've never been to Washington, DC or Virginia or any of the surrounding areas so apologies for any inconsistencies that don't match with what is actually there and reasonable.
> 
> Also the lovely pictures are done by Rose_Malmaison.

# 

Bete Noire

“Do you know who Gibbs’ bete noire is?” Tony whispered harshly to Bishop.

Bishop rolled her eyes. “Why do you care, Tony?”

“Shhhh. Not so loud. If Gibbs find out we're talking about him, we're all screwed.”

“You started it, Tony.” McGee pointed out calmly.

“And I’m ending it.” Gibbs interrupted, “Also, you’ll all be my bete noire if you don’t get back to work.”

“On it, Gibbs.” Agents McGee, Bishop, and DiNozzo chorused.

Gibbs grunted and settled in behind his desk. He'd barely started working on the paperwork awaiting him when the phone rang and they were off on a case. Or well Gibbs and Abby were.

Tony wasn't sure if this was punishment for the bete noire comment or if it really was just that the case was weird. The death had happened in a lab on the grounds of the Pentagon. Abby had been required at the scene due to the chemicals involved. 

Apparently, the top brass hadn't wanted anyone else at the crime scene, but Abby had talked them into letting Gibbs come with her. They'd drawn the line at the rest of the team, though. The risk of exposure would be too great and this needed to be kept hush hush as the dead Naval officer wasn't even supposed to be at the Pentagon.

If they could have kept Gibbs out they would have, but Abby had valid points about needing Gibbs investigative skills to find the murderer. At least, Gibbs wouldn’t talk to reporters. Reporters and lawyers could be considered a bete noire of Gibbs in Tony’s opinion. 

None of the 3 left behind took it well. Every single time Gibbs went off on his own he ended up in big trouble. Tony knew that Bishop and McGee were working together at McGee’s computer to try and keep track of Gibbs and make sure he was ok. 

It wouldn’t do much once Gibbs was inside the pentagon or it wouldn’t if McGee hadn’t previously hacked the pentagon. It wasn’t something McGee had admitted to Vance or Gibbs, but Tony had figured it out on a previous case when McGee had access to information he shouldn’t have. Tony had helped him cover it up with Gibbs and Vance.

He knew that the secret door McGee had found would come in handy someday. He just never expected it to be needed to find out information about a crime scene that they were being blocked from accessing in person. Unfortunately, there didn’t appear to be any cameras in the room where the actual crime took place.

Or if there were, McGee hadn’t been able to find them. When Abby sent them some information via email and Gibbs called them up demanding they immediately start going through the information, Tony supposed it was probably a good thing that he hadn’t been able to catch them using the pentagon cameras. What they didn’t know is that they had already been caught using the pentagon cameras and they wouldn’t be able to escape the consequences. 

As they made their way through the information, Allison Hart made an appearance at headquarters to warn them that they were messing with things they weren’t prepared to handle. She also read them the riot act for hacking. Vance ended up getting involved and it was a huge mess. 

There was no way it wouldn’t make it back to Gibbs. None of them had lost their jobs, yet, but who knew what would happen once Gibbs returned. Abby had already sent a strongly worded email to McGee to keep out before he landed himself in trouble that he couldn’t talk his way out of.

McGee and Tony exchanged glances after Allison left. Tony wanted to make a crack about Allison being Gibbs’ bete noire, but refrained given he was in charge since Gibbs was out of the office. There was something seriously off about this case, but Tony couldn’t put his finger on it.

He could tell McGee and Bishop felt the same way. They’d been poring over what little crumbs of data Abby and Gibbs could give them for what felt like days. There was nothing here. 

Deciding that they needed to look at this from another angle, Tony indicated for McGee to follow him as he took a walk to clear his head. “What are we missing, McGee?”

“A lot of information.” McGee deadpanned.

Tony shook his head. “We need more than that, McGee. There has to be another way to find this information.”

“We already tried to hack the pentagon cameras.”

“No. We need to follow the trail of the information they gave us. There has to be something we’re missing that will lead to what we need to crack this wide open.” 

“I don’t know, Tony. We’ve been over this data at least a hundred times already.”

“So we go over it one hundred and one times, McGee. There’s something there. I just know it. Allison wouldn’t have come out here if there wasn’t something to be found.”

By the time they returned to the office, Bishop was waving a piece of paper around excitedly. 

“What did you find, Bishop?”

“The real reason our Naval officer was at the pentagon. Look here.”

Tony took the papers from Bishop and started reading. “A meeting with Allison Hart?”

“Yep.” Bishop nodded.

“The top brass are trying to sweep this under the rug. McGee look into what Allison Hart was doing at the pentagon today and why she was meeting our dead naval officer.”

Meanwhile, Gibbs and Abby had wrapped up the crime scene or at least as much as they’d been allowed to. Gibbs knew that there was something else going on that they were being blocked from finding out. Seeing Allison Hart as he exited the building just increased the bad feeling in his gut monumentally.

The call from Vance about his agents hacking the pentagon made him cringe. They were just doing what he’d taught them, but this time it might land them in more trouble than Gibbs could get them out of. Still Gibbs wasn’t going to stop until the truth was found. 

Right now they had a whole lot of nothing and he sure hoped that the team had found something for them to go on. The whole case stank to high heaven and the sooner they closed it the happier Gibbs would be. Abby was all excited about the chemicals at the lab and they hadn’t even seen the most top secret ones.

Honestly, Gibbs couldn’t follow her current babble. He couldn’t wait to hand her over to McGee when they made it back to the Naval Yard, which of course, was when he noticed the tail they now had. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really lose the tail as they were on the stretch of the 395 going over the potomac and there was nowhere to go. 

Their tail turned into 4 armored black vehicles and Gibbs knew they were in trouble. He told Abby to jump out of the vehicle. He just knew that they would force him into the water and it would be easier if he only had himself to worry about.

Abby looked at him wide eyed, her babble stopping abruptly as she looked around and realized what was going on. They had all the physical evidence with them too. This was going to be bad.

Abby quickly grabbed as much evidence as she could and jumped from the car landing on the pavement and rolling to protect her body and the evidence as much as she could. She clung to the edge of the bridge as the traffic rushed past and hoped that no one saw her jump. She watched as the NCIS van with the rest of their evidence and Gibbs was forced off the bridge and into the water.

She quickly dialed Tony and explained the situation to him. Tony told her to hold tight and stay where she was and that someone would come pick her up. He quickly rushed up to Vance’s office and explained the situation. 

Vance told him that he’d call Abigail Borin and see if she could muster up one of the Coast Guard helicopters to mount a rescue mission before they lost all their evidence and both of their agents. Tony nodded and headed down to the motor pool to grab another van. McGee and Bishop joined him and they all headed for the Pentagon and Abby. Before they could get to Abby though, Allison stopped right next to Abby and forced Abby to get in the car with her.

Allison then pulled an illegal u-turn on the freeway making a huge mess that resulted in many accidents as cars tried to get out of her way as she sped towards them. Needless to say, Tony and team had trouble getting to the accident site in their van due to this. Abby tried to jump out of the car as Allison was distracted driving, but Allison fired the gun in a warning shot and engaged the child safety locks.

Abby had no choice to stay with the car. She had no idea where they were going other than further and further away from NCIS. She really hoped the team found her soon. 

Fortunately, the coast guard helicopter came through and once they grabbed Gibbs and he got his breath back were able to save as much of the evidence as they could. Most of the evidence was in water safe containers, but some of it was still ruined. Gibbs grudgingly offered his thanks as they dropped him back at NCIS with the evidence. 

Gibbs checked it in before grabbing another motor pool vehicle and heading back out to try to find Abby and his team. By the time the team made it to the accident site, Abby was long gone and so was Gibbs. Tony ordered McGee to track Abby and Gibbs. The original evidence van was nowhere to be seen and Tony assumed that it had sunk somewhere. 

He called Vance who assured him that a backup team was on the way and that he’d make sure someone was called in to assist in getting the van out of the water. Before Gibbs had made it more than 10 minutes down the road, he received a call from a Navy Admiral telling him that they’d found Abby and that he needed to get down to Alexandria as fast as he could. 

He changed directions and headed for Alexandria which caused him to miss the disaster of an accident that the team was caught up in. Of course, when he reached Alexandria all he found were armed men waiting for him. They quickly overpowered him and he knew nothing more.

McGee had finally found Abby’s location based on the gps in her cellphone. It placed her somewhere in Monongahela National Forest. Gibbs had been on the 395, but his dot soon changed to going on the 495. 

The team had to choose between Abby and Gibbs. They left the backup team to fish out the van with the remaining evidence and headed for Monogahela National Forest. After searching for what seemed like hours, they finally found Abby’s cellphone, but no Abby.

“Crap. Now, what?”

“Where’s Gibbs now?”

“Heading towards us on the 81.”

“Let’s see if we can meet up with him.”

McGee nodded while Bishop called Gibbs' cell. No answer. The team exchanged worried glances. 

This is exactly why they didn’t like Gibbs going off on his own. “Let’s see if we can ambush whoever has Gibbs’ phone as they pass us.”

Alas, it was too hard to figure out exactly which car had Gibbs’ phone and they were finally forced to retreat back to NCIS headquarters to regroup. Tony hated this. He hated knowing that his teammates were in danger, not only Gibbs, but Abby too.

Still he knew the best way to find them would be to solve the case. “Ok, guys. Let’s recap. What do we have?”

When Gibbs woke up, he was tied to Abby and they appeared to be in a cabin though it was hard to tell as there were no windows in the cabin and no lights on either. 

“Are you ok?” He whispered to Abby.

Abby whimpered. “They got all the evidence.”

“Who did?” 

“Allison Hart. She forced me into the car with her. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Shh. You’ll be alright. We’ll find a way out of here.” Gibbs tested the ropes around them for movement and was glad to find that they had some wiggle room. 

Reaching for his belt knife, Gibbs froze as a voice called, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Allison made her way around to face them. Clucking her tongue, she shook her head, “If you had just come alone, Abby. None of this would have been necessary, but Gibbs here is too dangerous. Who knows what he saw at that scene, so now I’m going to have to kill you both.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m always left to clean up the messes that my employers leave behind.”

Gibbs glared. “Why are you doing this? What’s in it for you?”

“Why, you, of course. I get to do whatever I want to you and so long as you never see the light of day they don’t care what happens to you. I have no need for Abby, though. I think I’ll just kill her now.”

“No!” Gibbs shifted so that he was between Abby and Allison. 

“You care about her so much that you would die for her?”

“Of course, but you knew that or she would already be dead.”

Back at NCIS headquarters, Tony prompted, “We still have proof that the naval officer was meeting Allison Hart. Can we trace her movements? Where was she in all of this disaster?”

“Getting right on that, boss.” McGee hurriedly typed away on her computer. “She was definitely at the accident scene. Her car was reported speeding away in the wrong direction on the freeway.”

“Damn her. She really is Gibbs’ bete noire.” Tony murmured.

“Looks like someone was paying her to spend time with our naval officer. She has a significant influx of money from an unknown source.” 

“McGee. Work on tracing that money. Bishop, let’s figure out where Allison would have taken them.”

Bishop nodded and started pulling up all the information they had on properties that Allison owned or had access to. Of course, it wasn’t easy. Allison’s financials were locked up tighter than Houdini in his escape trick. 

Right now, everything they had was circumstantial and there was no way a judge would give them a warrant. On top of that, there were too many places that she could have taken them. Tony had never realized just how many properties Allison and her clients(or the clients they knew about at least) owned.

McGee was doing his best to find the culprit behind Allison’s meeting with the naval officer, but he hadn’t found anything, yet. Bishop was perusing the information they had, looking for any other pieces that were out of place that would help them solve this case.

Tony was calling up anyone and everyone that he thought might have some information on the case or the current whereabouts of Gibbs or seen anything at either crime scene. Most of them wouldn’t give him the time of day due to the fact that he wasn’t technically cleared to know about what happened at the pentagon. Tony grew more and more frustrated as they continued to get nowhere.

Gibbs glared Allison down, daring her to make a move. Even tied up, he was still a threat and she knew it. He was just waiting for her to make a mistake that he could capitalize on and escape or at least get Abby out. 

Getting bored with the staring contest, Allison stepped up to Gibbs, gun pointed straight at him and slapped his face. Gibbs head bounced with the force of the slap, but he used the momentum to twist his body and knock her down. The gun fell out of her hands as she fell and slid away. 

Allison tried to grab it, but Gibbs headbutted her before she could. They went down in a tumble and Abby held on for dear life as Gibbs fought with Allison while still tied to her. The gun was within her reach, if she could just grab it. 

There, she got it. Aiming for Allison as best as she could in the awkward position she was in under Gibbs as he tussled with Allison, Abby fired. The first shot went wide, but it caused Allison to freeze enough that Gibbs was able to trap her under him, dragging Abby on top of them both. 

“Can you reach my belt knife and free us, so that we can tie her up, Abby?”

“I’ll try.” Abby groped around his crotch area before finding the belt. She fumbled to get it open, but finally managed it. Of course, Allison used their distraction to wiggle out from under Gibbs. 

Abby dropped the knife and aimed at Allison as she took off for the door. Abby shot at Allison. This time she hit her, but only in the leg. Allison went down as her leg blossomed in pain.

Gibbs grabbed the knife and quickly freed Abby and him. Allison stood back up despite the pain in her leg and hobbled her way to the door. 

“Find us the quickest way out of here, Abby,” Gibbs ordered as he took off after Allison.

Allison knew the area better than he did, so she had the advantage, but she was unarmed and injured. He hoped that he could find her before she got too far away. She needed to face justice not only for kidnapping them, but for whatever role she played in the Naval officer’s death. 

By the time he made it out the door, Allison had vanished. He looked around for her, but they were in the middle of a forest and he had no idea where they actually were. Heading back inside to see what Abby had figured out, Gibbs returned the knife to its location on his belt. 

“We need to find the evidence Gibbs. She had it in the car when she drove me here.”

Gibbs nodded and they searched. They finally found the chemicals along with a computer. Abby started to turn it on, but Gibbs shook his head. “Not now, Abs. We need to get out of here first.”

Abby looked chagrined and nodded. They heard a roar of a car starting up and rushed outside just in time to see Allison take off in her car. Gibbs cursed. 

He looked around and saw an old abandoned truck. Hoping it still ran, Gibbs headed for it and tried to start it up. It made a terrible coughing noise as it tried to start before it fizzled and died. 

While Gibbs was trying to get the truck to start, Abby fired off an IM to McGee to put a bolo out on Allison’s car. That woman loved her car more than she should and would not abandon it easily. While she was at it, she tried to figure out their location and send it to the team. 

McGee was able to trace the computer she was using and told her that they’d send someone for them. Tony looked at where they were located and noticed that Virgina Highlands Airport was nearby. Calling Fornell for a favor for Gibbs, Tony begged him to get the FBI Gulf Stream to the Virginia Highlands Airport and pick Gibbs up.

Gibbs finally got the truck started and shouted for Abby to get in. Tony told McGee to tell Abby to head for the Virginia Highlands Airport. Abby quickly relayed the information to Gibbs who asked her to find them the fastest route there. 

Fornell shook his head as Abby and Gibbs met him at the airport. “You owe me.”

Gibbs gave a short nod, conceding the point. They boarded the jet and Abby babbled at him happily about how awesome that was. They landed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and quickly made their way back to NCIS headquarters. 

Fornell tagged along because he could. Abby headed for her lab with the chemicals and other evidence that they’d rescued from the cabin and immediately started her babies on processing them. It was actually the chemicals that ended up being the missing piece they needed to wrap the case up. 

They pointed the finger at someone with a chemistry background as they were not chemicals readily available. They weren’t even chemicals normally found in that lab. The trail of how the chemicals were made actually led back to a Navy Admiral that had paid Allison off to try and cover up the accidental death of the Naval officer. 

The officer had been accidentally exposed to the chemicals and while they shouldn’t have been fatal, they were. Now that they knew what had happened and had enough evidence for the warrant, they just needed to find Allison and the Navy Admiral. 

“How does it feel to know you’ll be able to arrest your bete noire?” Tony questioned.

Gibbs rolled his eyes. “What is your obsession with my bete noire?”

“Partners need to know these things, Gibbs. I can’t cover your weak spots if I don’t know what they are.”

Gibbs shook his head as they waited for the information to come in about Allison and the Navy Admiral’s whereabouts. Allison had practically vanished, but people kept spotting her car, so Gibbs knew it was only a matter of time before they found her. The Navy Admiral wasn’t anywhere near as good at hiding and they’d already picked him up and turned him over to the appropriate people for holding.

They’d picked up a few others for aiding and abetting that were with the Admiral when they picked him up too. Finally, they found Allison and brought her in too. Gibbs shook his head and headed for home.

Allison may not be his bete noire, though he wasn’t about to tell Tony that, but this was just another reason why he hated lawyers. His real bete noire had almost come true during this case. The nightmare that he couldn’t seem to stop from happening of watching any of his team die in front of him. 

It had already happened once with Kate and almost happened with Abby during this case. He was glad he hadn’t had to face another team member’s death. Still he couldn’t believe that Allison had actually gotten her hands dirty with this case. 

Usually she stayed out of the grunt work. Oh well. That was a problem for the attorney general to figure out. He still wondered about why she’d really been meeting that navy officer. They would probably never know, though.

**Author's Note:**

> Oops. I don't have tomorrow's story written. Bad muse. Sigh. Wish me luck!
> 
> My 2018 Prompt collection is open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2019. I'm hoping to complete all the 2018 prompts by the end of 2019. Here's hoping muse cooperates.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> I've started a new [poll](https://cutsycat.livejournal.com/55450.html) regarding my series and which ones people most want to see continued in place of the Rapprochement series which I have brought to an end for now... 
> 
> Note: The Bishop Entanglement, Crazy Cat Tale, and Pregnant FBI Agent series will be continued no matter what, so you don't need to vote for those. For those who don't have livejournals just leave a comment with your responses. Thanks!
> 
> Also, I'm looking for some writing buddies. Full details are [here](https://cutsycat.livejournal.com/53610.html). It is friends locked, so you'll have to add me as a friend on lj before you can read it.
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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